On December 17th, 1986, police raided the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, a long-established gay pub in South London. In the course of the raid, police seized boxes of amyl nitrite (“poppers”). The landlord, Pat McConnon, and various members of his staff … Continue reading →
The first British case of AIDS was diagnosed at the end of 1981. Just over three years later, in March 1985, testing for HIV was introduced and 2,935 positive diagnoses were recorded within the first six months. Even at that … Continue reading →
Given that the UK Labour Party has just elected a new leader that the media continues to describe as ‘Left-wing’, it seems timely to re-visit the media coverage of the Labour Party’s ‘Left wing’ back in the 1980s. In those … Continue reading →
One of the things I try to do with this blog is give a sense of the political, social and cultural context against which various events took place. Hopefully this leads to a greater understanding of the event itself (for … Continue reading →
One of the notable outcomes from this month’s UK General Election was the ousting of Liberal Democrat MP Simon Hughes from the seat of Bermondsey. Hughes had been the sitting MP since over-turning a 63% Labour majority at a controversial … Continue reading →